Boehner: Oh, hey, I was just teasing my caucus by mocking them over immigration

AllahpunditPosted at 3:21 pm on April 29, 2014

Via the Free Beacon, can lefties and righties join hands and proclaim our mutual disgust at this guy for endlessly talking out of both sides of his mouth on this subject? I feel like I’ve been writing the same two posts, alternating weekly, for the past year: “Boehner vows to make immigration reform happen” and “Boehner blames Obama for failure of immigration reform.” Last week was dominated by the first type; this week, apparently, will be dominated by the second.

The irony of Boehner periodically blaming his own caucus and then turning around and blaming O for haphazardly enforcing the law is that virtually nothing’s changed on either front. There is, was, and always has been a critical mass of centrist Republicans in the House who want to pass comprehensive reform; all Boehner needs to do is put something on the floor and let that centrist minority join with Democrats to pass it. Meanwhile, Obama is, was, and will remain on track to relax America’s deportation policy a bit as a pander to his base, while they wait for Congress to act on reform. In theory, if you believe Boehner’s shpiel that Obama’s the big obstacle here because Republicans don’t trust him to enforce the law, the fact that O’s getting ready to further scale back security measures should be the final straw for comprehensive reform. In reality, it may be that the GOP leadership is so worried about Obama earning more goodwill for Democrats among Latinos by relaxing deportations that they feel more desperate than ever to pass something. The whole thing is a charade, driven by the simple reality that the Republican leadership is “hellbent” on passing something that Republican base voters are hellbent on opposing. Everyone understands this, but the facade that the leadership is actually representing its constituents must be kinda sorta maintained, which is why Boehner is forever oscillating between “it’s happening” and “Obama’s the bad guy.” Pathetic. The boss emeritus is right — it’s time for this guy to go.

“I want to let you in on a little secret. We are going to pass that bill and sign it into law this year,” said the New York Democrat, one of the authors of a Senate immigration bill that would provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, overhaul the current system and boost border enforcement…

“We will have an immigration bill — it may not be exactly the Senate bill — on the floor of the House … We will come to an agreement. They will put that bill on the President’s desk for President Obama to sign into law,” Schumer said.

I’ll never understand why, if House Republican leaders were determined to pass something, they didn’t just bite the bullet last year a la Rubio and the Gang of Eight and ram it through then. Conservatives would have screeched and vowed to stay home in the midterms, but those promises would have melted away after the disastrous ObamaCare rollout and been all but forgotten by this summer. Instead Boehner and crew dragged their feet and now we’ve got someone as high-ranking as Cathy McMorris-Rodgers wondering aloud about passing a bill as late as August, just three months before conservatives get ready to vote. That’s political malpractice. Terrible policy, horrible strategy: Who cares if they lose anymore?